Recipes: Gruyere Cheese Spread - Caramel Pecan Brie - Hot Pepper Peach Cheese Ball - Lemon Dill Shrimp Dip - Biscoff Cookie Cheese Spread - Italian Cheese Ball

Here are the recipes from this past weekends tastings, New Year's Eve day.  All were enjoyed by customers.  

This first recipe is from Fresh Markets Fresh Flavors Holiday Recipe Book, 2010. (If you did not get your 2013 recipe book, I still have some.  Just let me know and I'll be glad to give you one.)  I sampled this on Saturday and it was a favorite.  Ran out of recipe cards and Robert Rothschild Farm Lemon Dill and Caper Sauce sold out.

Lemon Dill Shrimp Dip

8 oz. TFM cream cheese, softened

½ c. mayonnaise

½ jar Robert Rothschild Farm 
     Lemon Dill and Caper Sauce

¼ c. chopped shallot

¼ c. chopped celery with leaves included

Zest of 1 lemon

½ lb. shrimp, cooked, cooled, peeled and 
     roughly chopped

Place first 6 ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Cream together. Stir in shrimp.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Serve with TFM French Rounds or TFM Entertainment Crackers.  

I served these with TFM Garlic French Rounds.  My taste testers in Bakery said it was awesome and also gave it an A+++.  A few of my other taste testers said it was the best recipe ever.  

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When I went in to work on Thursday, I was told they received a lot of Gruyere and would I please sample it out.  My first thought -  anyone could cube cheese.  I had to think of something else.  My inspiration was the PreMoo Cheese Spread Nicole prepared and we sampled out last week (which was a hit).   A Gruyere Cheese Spread. Hmmmm .... What a relief for me when it proved to be a customer (and TFM taste tester) favorite.  Also sold out of the mustard.

Gruyere Cheese Spread

½ lb. Gruyere cheese, shredded

½ c. mayonnaise

1 Tbl. Stonewall Kitchen 

     Caramelized Onion Mustard

Combine all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.  Transfer to a serving bowl.  Serve with your favorite crackers.

Stonewall Kitchen's Caramelized Onion Mustard is a favorite of mine.  My husband eats it right out of the jar.  

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The last favorite was a recipe I modified from Robert Rothschild. (Here I go changing recipes again.)

Hot Pepper Peach Cheese Ball

16 oz. TFM cream cheese, softened

1 (10.5 oz.) jar Robert Rothschild Farm

Hot Pepper Peach Preserves

¼ c. diced onion

1 small jalapeno, diced

4 c. shredded 

     Adam’s Reserve Cheddar cheese

Smoked almonds, coarsely chopped

Place all ingredients, except almonds, in a mixing bowl.  Blend until  thoroughly incorporated.  Cover and place in refrigerator 4 hours or overnight.  Prior to serving, remove from refrigerator and form into a ball.  Roll in smoked almonds.  Place on serving plate.  Serve with your favorite crackers.

Yields:  2 cheese balls

I not only sold out of Robert Rothschild Hot Pepper Peach Preserves, but also Stonewall Kitchen Hot Pepper Peach Jam.   

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This next recipe is also from  Fresh Markets Fresh Flavors Holiday Recipe Book, 2010.  Easy, easy, easy.

The Fresh Market's Signature Caramel Pecan Brie

1 wheel of Ile de France Brie

1 jar TFM Caramel Sauce

pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped

Prepare a warm brie. 

While brie is in oven, warm sauce according to directions on jar.

Remove brie from oven and place on a serving plate.  Top with pecans and caramel sauce.  Serve with your favorite cracker, graham cracker or TFM Original French Rounds. 

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The last recipe was for those that have a sweet tooth.  This started as a recipe from the 2012 Fresh Market Holiday Recipe Book, but we no longer carried some of the (main) ingredients.  I had to improvise.  I was relieved to hear that my taste testers enjoyed this, as did customers.

Biscoff Cookie Cheese Spread

8 oz. TFM  cream cheese, softened

½ c. powdered sugar

2 Tbl. Wholesome Agave Nectar

¾ c. Biscoff European Cookie Spread

10 Biscoff Cookies, crushed

1 c. Guittard Semi-Sweet chocolate chips

In a medium mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, agave, and cookie spread.  Mix until thoroughly blended.  Refrigerate 4  hours or overnight. 

To serve, combine crushed cookies and chocolate chips.  Spread cheese mixture on a medium sized, shallot dish.  Sprinkle with cookie-chip mixture.

Serve with TFM Cinnamon Crispies, graham crackers, or butter cookies.

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I prepared the following recipe Tuesday, December 31st.  I had no idea it would be the hit that it was with customers.  I ran out of recipe cards and sold out of Italian seasoning.  

Italian Cheese Ball

1 lb. fresh mozzarella, grated

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1½ c. shredded Reggiano Parmesan cheese

½ c. pine nuts, toasted

2 Tbl. Instant Gourmet Rustic Italiano seasoning

Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix until well blended.  Shape into a ball and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Yields:  2 cheese balls

Option 1:  Place 1 stick  pepperoni, Italian dry salami, or sopresatta, in a food processor and chop up. Roll cheese ball in pepperoni.  

Option 2:  Place 1 stick  pepperoni, Italian dry salami, or sopresatta, in a food processor and chop up. Coat cheese ball in Cibo Basil Pesto.  Roll cheese ball in pepperoni. 

I prepared Option 2 for sampling.  Coating the cheese ball is simple.  Hold cheese ball in one hand.  With the other coat the exposed part of the cheese ball with pesto and put chopped sopresatta on it.  Roll cheese ball over in your hand, putting the sopresatta portion of cheese ball in your hand.  Coat remainder of cheese ball with pesto and put chopped sopressata on it.

As I was cleaning up after my tasting I had a couple slices of sopresatta on my work area.  I also had a little cheese ball left (this one had no pesto or meat on it) but no TFM French Rounds.  So I put a piece of cheese ball on the sopresatta.  It was a nice change from using a cracker AND serving it this way eliminated the need to chop sopresatta and coat the cheese ball.  Try it for a time saving, tasty party treat.